NOVEL NEXT vol. 4 chapter 37 - Interlude (Where Is He Now)
When he came to, he was lying in a place he had never seen before.
The room was about the size of a spacious inn chamber. There were no windows, but a gentle light filtered down from the ceiling.
The interior was unified in calm tones—milky white and brown.
The bed he’d been laid on, a side table.
A closet.
A simple desk and chair.
That was all the room contained.
There was a recessed panel in the back that looked like a door, but there was nothing like a knob.
He had no memory of what had happened or why he’d been put to bed here, and he was at a loss.
After a few minutes like that, he steeled himself to climb out of bed—put his feet to the floor—
At the same time, a knocking sound echoed in the room.
Startled, he spun toward the source.
It was where that recessed, door-like panel was. The instant his gaze fell on it, it slid open by itself.
“—!”
He sucked in a breath in surprise.
Not only at the door moving on its own—but because the person who entered was the last he expected.
“Are you awake?”
Her voice chimed like a bell; she smiled, dainty and cute—but he felt like his soul left his body.
Because she was the very girl he had earlier chosen as his target.
“…So, I’ve been abducted by your organization, have I?”
“Oh my, how cruel. ‘Abducted’—such an unseemly way to put it.”
We simply neutralized an enemy to protect ourselves.
That was her answer.
In other words, they regarded him as an enemy—and he was now neutralized.
He forced strength into a body that wanted to shake with fear and raised his head.
For all his faults, he lived by covert scouting and assassination. He knew how to control his own emotions.
But that alone didn’t improve the situation.
The room was obviously built to keep him inside: no window for light, and a single exit.
The fact that she appeared before him meant she would be assigned as both attendant and watcher.
“Please don’t worry. Fortunately, we suffered no harm—well, if anything, the hall was a bit abuzz when you collapsed. Since there was essentially no damage, we won’t deliberately harm you.”
She giggled to herself—truly cute.
Naturally, he couldn’t laugh.
What in those words was supposed to reassure him?
Saying only that they wouldn’t deliberately harm him, with nothing at all about him being safe or protected.
“By the way, will you tell me about yourself? We—no, I—don’t know anything about you. Shall we talk?”
“…”
And so he found himself subjected to an “interview” by a dainty-looking girl.
For reasons he couldn’t fathom, the girl sat before him smiling and beaming—and he had been using his a-bi-li-ty on her the entire time.
It was only the one trick: to induce the faintest favor toward himself.
He couldn’t tell whether it was working.
“Ah! Right, you must be getting hungry. Just a moment.”
When she stood before the door, it opened by itself.
“Oh—would you like to see this part too? There’s a washroom and bath, and a kitchen as well.”
Beckoned by her, he moved toward the door at a cautious pace.
Beyond it was a short corridor. To the immediate left, yes, that appeared to be a kitchen. A door on the right, and another at the end.
“Left is the kitchen. Right is the bath. You won’t know how to use them, so I’ll explain later. Meals will be delivered, but you can cook for yourself if you like. Whatever suits you.”
Saying so, she worked briskly, and in no time at all had tea prepared.
“Food will arrive in about two hours. For now, let’s have some tea. The sweets are special today—a selection ordered directly from the Forest Kingdom of Levresta.”
Pushed back from where he’d been standing idly, the man sat dutifully on the bed.
Teacups and sweets were set swiftly on the side table; the teapot went on the desk along with an hourglass.
“It’s called black tea. Have you had it before?”
“…Yeah.”
“I see. The leaves are also direct imports from Levresta. These days you rarely get to drink it—so please look forward to it.”
Was his Charm Eye taking effect on her?
From the start she hadn’t shown much hostility and was quite forward with him, so he couldn’t tell any difference.
At the very least, they didn’t seem intent on doing anything to him immediately. For hours—who knew how many—the “conversation” that passed for interrogation simply continued.
Perhaps they were waiting for him to speak on his own, instead of forcing it out.
He made his living at intelligence work, yes, but that meant relying on his Charm Eye.
He wasn’t versed in extracting information through glib talk—or beating it out of someone.
At best, he was a little better than most at reading faces and picking words.
“Here you are. Careful, it’s hot.”
While he’d been peering at her, tea had been set before him.
He couldn’t judge the quality of tea, but from the aroma, it didn’t seem bad.
“In a place like this…”
“You don’t need to worry about poison. If we wanted to harm you with poison, there would be far more direct opportunities.”
We could have dosed you while you were asleep, after all, she added with a smile.
Because it was true, he gave up and reached for the tea set she’d prepared.
Days passed like that, with the girl tending to him.
When he woke in the morning and she noticed, she began preparing breakfast. Then morning interrogation. Lunch break, then daytime interrogation. After dinner, a bath would be drawn and ready by itself. Supposedly free time after that—but with nothing in particular to do, he only slept.
Her questions—and explanations—spanned a wide range.
From the kingdom’s nobility system to methods of civilian treatment. The hours from sunrise to sunset, questions about the moons in the sky. Episodes from childhood to popular amusements among the Forest Kingdom of Levresta’s commoners.
He lacked for nothing in food, clothing, and shelter, and it wasn’t so dull as to leave him bored.
Even so, he grew increasingly anxious.
There was no way to learn anything from the outside, and the only person he could contact was this girl.
His prized Charm Eye—whether it worked or not—by evening she felt quite friendly, but by morning it had returned to baseline.
So he decided to escape.
He would aim for the far end of the corridor the girl used to come and go.
It hadn’t opened when he stood before it, but she always used it.
He couldn’t guess what lay beyond, but he would not passively drift along in a situation with no visibility.
At night.
He rose from the bed and stepped into the corridor.
And immediately collapsed.
“—Hh! Kah—ggh!”
He panted, convulsed. Clutched his chest, arched, writhed.
It was his consummate performance. Not something slapdash: he had trained to simulate sudden seizures in anticipation of confinement like this.
Even a competent physician wouldn’t easily see through it. That was how convincing it was.
Pshh—the sound of air venting.
“Are you all right!?”
The door at the corridor’s end opened, and the girl burst out. Backlit, and with him mid-seizure, he couldn’t make her out.
Even so, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opening.
“Ha!”
With murderous intent, he barked.
A rough technique—slamming his mana wave into the opponent to scramble their internal mana. Against anyone competent, it was child’s play.
Even so, the girl seemed startled and froze.
If one didn’t live a life of battle, this kind of intimidation couldn’t be met head-on.
He kicked off the floor with everything he had, slipped past her, and dove through the open door.
Beyond it was a vast space, lit with a soft glow.
Roughly the size of a small party hall.
But all through the chamber stood a huge number of inscrutable things.
Board-like structures that emitted a dim light. Huge metal machines with pipes thrusting out.
He ran between the structures.
Why was a room like this right outside his own? Where on earth had that girl come from?
“—Aaaah!”
He hit a wall and turned right. Ahead stood several enormous transparent tubes, apparently of glass.
Something was inside.
He tried to ignore it and run—
“—Hii!”
Noticing the con-tents, he leapt back. Thud—his back struck some kind of structure.
Glass cylinders, huge and round. Even if he stretched both arms around one, they wouldn’t reach halfway.
Inside, apparently, was liquid. Tiny bubbles born at the bottom rose slowly upward.
And what they contained—
“Running won’t help you.”
With that voice, his right hand was seized. For a girl’s slender looks, her grip felt like a vise.
“—!”
The same girl as always held his wrist.
For some reason she wasn’t wearing clothes; gleaming, a mysterious liquid dripped from her entire body.
And an identical-faced girl floated inside the glass cylinder.
“No use. You’ve been captured by us.”
It wasn’t only the one before him. There were many, many glass cylinders. In each, the same face floated.
“Come now—let’s go back to your room. We have to have another talk tomorrow.”
“U—uwaaaah! N-no, nooooo!”
◇◇◇◇
“…Why the horror setup?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.
When we crammed the minimum functions into the sea-based facility we prepared on short notice, it took that form.
Because each Android Communicator needs to perform stand-alone analysis and cleaning of its Brain Unit every cycle, we prepared multiple bodies and rotated them.
We hadn’t meant to frighten him that badly…”
“Yeah, well… It is scary. Shove that in someone’s face out of nowhere and—yeah. Just invite him to Telek Port City like a normal person. Otherwise the conversation won’t progress.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Proceeding accordingly.”